Audio Reactive Particle Magic Wings in TouchDesigner

Intro welcome back to another touch designer tutorial  today we are going to be creating this particle   wave we are going to be doing this with  some audio reactive elements we're going   to be using some patterns and we're going to be  chopping that into some particles we're going   to be using a box as a transform we're going  to create a little standard feedback loop and   then also do a lookup to create these colors  so let's do what we do and let's get into it Base Setup all right so let's go out of here  and we are going to create a new base   as normal we're going to close this out and  let's recreate everything so the first thing   that we need to add is we are going to  continue on kind of how we're doing some   of these tutorials is we are going to do an  add point we are going to then add a convert   in here is of course I always have to look  for everything and we're going to convert   this to particles per point and we're going to  render this as Point Sprites on the end of that   we are going to take this into a transform  and we are going to then put this into a no   so at the end of our null we are going to create  our typical geometry Network so we're going to   start out with our geometry node by right clicking  on the outlet we are then going to add a camera   we're going to add our render top and then we are going to add our material  and this time we are going to use Point   Sprite again so let's put this on there drag  it over the Geo and then Farm our material   and then in here we are going to  put a null at the end of our chain I'm going to name this background so BG   and then before that I'm going to right  click on here and then add a transform   and in the transform I'm going to change my Alpha  to one comp over background so then we can start   to create our background in here have our nice  black background you can see our little point   in space right there and then we are going to  in this case I am going to actually add a box   and I'm going to put the box into our ad Network  and you can see in here you can see the elements   of our box in space right so you can see the  different points the different vertexes in space   and that will kind of give us like a little  bit of where we go and how we start this okay   Chop Setup so what we want to do here is we're going to  be using chops and in our chops we are going   to be selecting a pattern chop so we take this  chop right here and we're going to do a number   of things here so in our common we are going to  earn our Channel we are going to rename this as TX   and then I'm going to copy this a couple  times here so copy paste copy paste   and I just did that so I don't  have to write T I guess but t y   and then I'm gonna do t z or t z right  so we have our three different patterns   and this is kind of how we're going to draw some  of our particles in space right so we're going   to then add a merge we're going to merge all  these three together and the reason we named   them t x t y and t z is now we have are points  in space here for our chops as we're going to   Chop to Shop transform this we're going to take this and  we're going to add a no on the end of this   just to keep things nice and clean and then  we are going to take this and we are going to   do a chop to shop right so we're kind  of just setting up this network again   and this has a little uh triangle here  it says it's not found that's amazing   um and then we have to look in here yes yes t x  t y t z right so what did I do here I name this   t with a capital T so there's two things I can  do I can change all these in here or I can go   into my chop right here and then change these  elements so I can capitalize this t and I can   be capitalized this T and I can capitalize  this t right and then our flag goes away   so I would probably do it the other way and  just have the lower case but I'm just showing   you two different uh ways to do this right so in  my pattern you saw in the example is I had these   Change Pattern waves kind of following so I want to change  this pattern and the first thing this pattern   top I'm going to change this to a cosine and  then that gives us this little element right   here right and this is going to be the power of  how we're doing things Within These parameter   pages over here on the top and these are some  of the adjustments that we are going to make   um you know steps per cycle different elements  like that so like right now if I do steps per   cycle on this and I change it to one you can see  how our little chop to data is positioning and   changing right so let's just leave that off for  a second so I'm going to take that back to zero   and we are going to go in some of the different  elements here and we're just going to start to   create like our particle Network so we can see  what's happening right so on this chop too I'm   going to take that and I'm going to chain or add  that on the tail end of that into our particle   right so now our product records are kind  of drawing in space so but we want to see   that in everything that's going on over here  right so we want to see how these things are   positioning how they're transforming etc  etc so in our friendly instancing tab this   is where we start to do the magic right and so  what I'm going to do here is I'm going to take   a null on the back end of this in case I add  anything I'm just going to call this position Create Feedback and here I'm then going to take this position and  put into my translate op and I'm going to start to   activate these points right position zero P1 P2  so now we have our lines kind of like drawing in   space and where things are going and this is some  of the things that the elements that we're going   to create and we're going to do our audio reactive  over here right but I also want to because it's   fun to look at these lines but I also want to  create like a little feedback network and to start   to do that so we have some like depth to the space  so if we go in here we do our normal feedbacks   we're going to add a feedback we are going to then  add a uh transform or a level let's do level first   and then we're going to do a transform and yes yes yes there it is transform of course  you can always type in the field like I always say   I prefer not to there is no reason other than I  guess I just always like to look for these things   so uh blur put the blur in here we don't need to  use this right now so I'm just going to kind of   push that off and then we're gonna do our standard  like composite here and not the ad so let's do a   composite right and we're going to take this we're  going to put it over here we're going to take this   we're going to drive it over here we're  going to bring this back into our Network   everything is going to turn off because  we don't have it connected gonna bring   Create Network this back in the feedback everything starts  Coming Back Drag a comp over our feedback   to create our Network and then we're going to  do a couple things so in our transform here   we are going to or in our level here sorry  we are going to change your opacity to 0.99 in our comp here we're going to change  this to over so now our lines are coming   back in our transform this scale right  here I'm going to change this to 0.9   and 0.9 so now we have like that depth right so  everything's kind of like going down the road   um so that makes it fun okay the other thing  too to kind of like give this some color as we   Add Lookup play with this is because we're going to kind  of be like adjusting things and how they look   is our size wise or our transforms and the rest  but let's give it some color so we're gonna do   what is called a lookup and we're going to add our  lookup right there and we are going to do a ramp   once I drag this into the ramp you can see that  we can start to like how we're going to color   these things but it's black and white so nothing  is happening and so I'm going to start to create   like a pattern here and the way in the example  I kind of had like a lot of black space and then   some different elements so I'm going to show  you a couple techniques is I'm going to take   this I'm going to leave this there and I'm going  to drag this all the way back over to Black then   I'm going to add another point in here I'm going  to take this and then draw this to like a blue and then I'm just kind of like eyeing on  what I'm looking at and like what colors   I would want per se I'm just going to create  these like different parameters in here and   I do this by creating some of these other  points like so I can match some purples   um but these points in here too and  you can match like all this data in   here to this other point is I'm just trying  to create like more of like a block of color   and then like how it kind of spells out right  so so like there's gonna be things within the   wave and how they like color and that's why if you  bring some of these things closer Etc um it starts   to push off that way right so there is our like  depth of field there is this and maybe I don't   need that much black since that's taken away a  lot of the trail I bring this back to the blue   and there you go right so we have now if  we're diving into the particles right so   Particles if you look at the particles in here we have  all these different values in here like what   is the life expectancy of the the particle what  is the variance what is the drag what is the mass   um what is the birth count like we only have one  right now right so one particle is kind of being   birth the expectancy is three um our mass is  one so I'm going to change these values I'm   going to change this to 10. and then I'm  going to change the birth to a thousand   right so we have more particles in space I'm going  to change the life expectancy let's say to 100   and my birth count I'm going to change to  a thousand and then I'm going to pulse this   right so now we have like particles moving in  space you can see this wonderful geometry right   there which is very cool um and we kind of go from  there uh the other thing is within this and this   is part since we're talking about particles and  driving audio into particles and how all these   different things work is we're going to see you  know what we can do in here and how we can change   some forces like some external forces some wind  some turbulence and this is just something that   like when you're creating something or you're  looking at a vision like this you just kind of   look around and see like what what setting should  I change you know it's it's the art of generative   you know kind of real-time Graphics so there's  lots of different things you can do and then a   lot of this drive like I said before is where are  these patterns sitting in space you know what's   happening with this if I change like the cycle you  know if I'm changing some of these different like   phases phases out as a thousand so this will start  to like change some of those elements Okay so when   Uniform Scale I have this transform in here too I also added  this and I'm going to change this to your uniform   scale to .01 right so now I'm kind of just pushing  that in space and you can see how automatically   that switched something too right so things are  moving things are happening but in this I want to   change how this is drawn and this is really going  to start with what are these elements here how are   they assigned within our pattern and what are we  doing um you know so if I change this to a cosine   you know then we're drawing a different  element right so there's different things   in here and how those things are are working  out so it's really this is like kind of our   our guide per se of like this is what we're trying  to do and this is what we're trying to accomplish   and this is the picture we're kind of looking  for is how we position this and again this is   just the camera view looking straight over these  particles on the z-axis right that's kind of just   you know pushing through there and it's looking  at X and Y is the Crosshair so camera's sitting   at zero is just looking down the road so as you  position your camera in the future or you do   some some camera movements and things like that  then that would change everything out okay so   this is kind of where we go back in and we say  okay what are we looking for in terms of you   know a look and maybe we don't need a phase at a  hundred you know so those are different elements   and different things we want to do but the other  thing I'm going to do is I'm just going to set up   Audio Reactive Network a simple audio reactive Network here and for this  example I'm going to use the the touch designer   default file that everybody knows it's using touch  designer it has all the wonderful things I don't   need to play the sound here because I really don't  want to listen to it but this is where you could   drag in your files drag in your content etc etc  right so we'll just take this turn off the display   and we are going to add actually in here we'll  just instead of creating a whole scenario   here we're just going to open the palette  we're going to bring in an audio analysis   we're going to connect this to this and by  default just so you know this default audio   file in is actually sitting inside this audio  analysis uh but we will just keep it how it is   right now and just kind of uh you know recreate  things right and kind of move things around so   I'm going to do this I'm going to slide this  over I'm going to turn off my palette again   and I'm going to create a little chain of  events here so I'm going to do a rename   and put that out there I'm going to do a math  so I can increase anything that I would like to and as you see as you start to create  these Networks you're like okay need   some more room here I'm going to slide this  baby over and we are then going to do a no so we're going to add the no one  there and what else do we want to   add I think that that is okay for now and  I'm just going to rename this to uh term let's see no let's say term and so this is going  to be something that's going to be affecting our   turning turbulence oh this is what I want to  do I want to add a select uh I don't know why   but I do know why I just like to have everything  clean so I'm going to name this and I'm going to   select this as the low value right because I'm  taking a lot of data in here I don't want to see   all this stuff and then I can build other select  chains off and do other things right so within   Audio Analysis this you can also see with an audio analysis  is we have some different values happening   here right and you can see the smoothness the  add the gain the threshold low means that we're   selecting it and touch designer to do a great  job of redoing this and making it uh you know   more selecting options and things like that so  we want to keep this on but I'm going to take   this smooth factor and drive that right because I  don't want to without adding a bunch of lags and   other things I just want to have like a smooth  push here and I'm also going to do a little ad   so I have like a little bit more you know gain so  you can think of the same thing as if you would   think of like an audio land and compressors and  thresholds you know so where is the gain so I'm   adding some things I could always do that in  the math down the road but I'm just kind of   doing this and I'm just going to then change my  smoothness a little bit more um you know so it's   kind of it has some movement to it but it's not  going any it's not doing anything crazy per se   Design Changes so back in here before we start kind of changing  this let's make our design a little bit more you   know some more things going on here so I'm going  to change the length of this cosine to 2000.   and then I am going to let's see  in here I'm going to change this to   phase of 1000 maybe that's good maybe change this  to a one nope don't want to do that I'm going to   change this to a hundred maybe a thousand um steps  per cycle I'm going to change that out to zero   and then in this one going back to the pattern  it's a sign I'm going to change this to 2000.   and my phase I'm going to change to a thousand   let's see here with the phase I'm trying to  think about how I want to draw this do I want   to make exactly the same thing I made before  I don't know so let's see here we have this we   have this number of Cycles if we bring that in  there we go we're back to kind of what we did um let's see here chop output our particle  Network let's have some stuff going on it's   kind of chaotic um let's let's go back to  our particles here and see what we have   here we have ten one thousand let's  change your life expectancy to 10.   um let's pulse this and I'm not really liking how  that looks it's not really driving to how I want   um but we have to change again some other elements  in here and this is the cool thing too is we could   change all kinds of things like in our phase  here this is really the beauty of like how   this was being drawn in space right and so how  this this cosine is like moving down the road   um so let's do this let's take this and put an  ABS times dot seconds and let's uh yes many years   there uh a space so now we have like this drawing  effect right and you can see it moving in the chop   can repulse our particle our particles has  some other stuff that's being drawn over it   um but we have this cool kind  of like mobile strip effect   um and this is all dependent again on like how  these things are reacting with each other right   so if we change our phase out and we bring our  phase back down to here let's say this is a zero   um and then let's take down this little sign  here and I'm going to divide this by two   so we're not moving as fast right and we can kind  of just keep going back from here so our feedback   pulse that baby out we can kind of see you know  how things are being drawn again what's happening   in the space and then we can still keep messing  with these things in our particles and saying okay   what do we have that's happening here and this is  within this little audio reactive I can take this   turbulence and I can take this  and bring it over to the Zed   whether I want a turbulence or I want a wind  or force and things like that so let's push   that and you can see how this is like drawing  within the particle lands and you can see we're   starting to like develop some shapes in space  and there's many things going on in here right   so we did the feedback loop we did the transforms  you know so these are the powers of like playing   with these numbers and really dialing in exactly  what you want as you keep pushing things out so   um in our particle let's see let's go back here  oh this one I want to do and my renderer I do   want to change uh what this is so I'm  going to change this to 1920 by 1080.   right so give it a little bit more resolution  we can add our border here in effect   um where is our ramp sitting in space you  know so we could change the phase of the   ramp right so we're changing some different  colors some different things uh of course   one of my favorites is like changing the period  right so you're giving some other depth in that   um but we'll just leave those you know at what  they are for right now but I just want to kind   of give you some examples of like how things are  moving in space and then how we can just keep   focusing on what we want to do in this situation  all those different elements um the other thing   too is within this box I have this ability now  because it's a box in space to like add different   elements so I can say here I can draw this as a  four right so I'm given different elements of how   that is pushing through space you know what  is happening how those things are operating   More Adjustments so back in here let's take let's take some more  adjustments here so we're gonna do this and I'm   actually going to take this part out right so I  don't really want that to kind of push through   I'm just going to leave this where it is but I'm  going to change this to one and in here I'm going   to change these elements again this is cosine  I'm going to change this phase to 1. and it's   I'm just looking at these values down here I'm  just looking at this drawing so I'm getting closer   to kind of what I had before um one thousand one  one let's say change this phase out to a thousand   right so this is this is kind of like the example  is and this is kind of what I was looking for   and this is kind of like some of the positional  data and what it's drawing but we can go back   into this particle and if you see like this  uh turbulence here I could also do this same   value and create some Force to this so if I  take this and drive this into the z-axis of   force now it's kind of like organically growing  through space right so I'm pushing those things   um even though I named this turbulence I  probably should have named it something else   but it's kind of like just going through  there and doing some different things   um so this is this is kind of the effect and  this is you know a playground which you can   look for and then you just have to keep  thinking of okay what are we doing here   like what are some different elements  what are some different steps in here   um you know are we are we rendering this as lines  are we rendering this as Point Sprites I prefer   Point Sprites for this Behavior particle system  sure attractor points All Points single point as   per particle we use points and Loops sure sure  pulse bam see how awesome we had this massive   mess and then we adjusted some things and we  pulse this so now we're getting that effect   right we're getting this drawing effect we  get this this you know symmetry that's going   down and doing those different things so you can  you know when you're building these things out   add a keyboard in and you can you know  again assign this to your particle   take this keyboard in take this bring it over  here as a pulse every time I hit one I'm pulsing   this back out see so this is the the dealing with  particles and dealing with these things this is   really where you kind of drawing over space where  particles emitting all those different levels and   things like that and that's how you kind of have  to like push and look at things and what you want   to do so in this transform let's say we see how  we're pushing in space or we see these different   elements with Even in our particles here we can  see that um our forces here we have these numbers   right so we're picking up this chop let's say  we want that Force to go the opposite way we hit   negative right so now it's pushing it the opposite  way because we're doing this in a different value   in a different subset chain right so um within  our ramp you know we do we want this white color   at the end we want a different color for that  um you know those are some of the things that   you can play with and say nope I want this drawn  a different way so this is kind of the power of   creating all these things and really what's making  what's driving again a lot of this is really these   patterns and you know that's the benefit of how  we're going to do this and it's really that's   the beauty of it is you're creating these things  based on chop patterns um so that should be fun so   I think this is a good place to stop and give  everybody the opportunity to create their own   artwork why would they always want to recreate  what I do right so here are some elements here's   some different things you can do you can always  change out some different geometries and things   like that so thanks for joining us for this  uh touch designer tutorial thank you very much